Nat Wolff on "TFiOS," Isaac's Future, and Groping Breasts

"I just tend to do things in an odd way."

Spoilers ahead for people who have not read the book. They are noted in advance.

After coming of age on Nickelodeons The Naked Brothers Band, 19-year-old actor and singer Nat Wolff seems poised for an effortless transition from tween heartthrob to leading man. He's in this week's The Fault in Our Stars as Isaac, a cancer-afflicted teen who eventually loses his sight, and he played that part so well that he was recently cast as the lead in the adaptation of yet another John Green book, Paper Towns. Cosmopolitan.com spoke with the up-and-comer about playing a blind character, collaborating with Green, and why hes really glad that theres not a Fault in Our Stars sequel.

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How did you prepare to play a blind character?I met with a lot of cancer patients and that was really informative in the sense that they were no different than any other kids that Ive met. And then I met with a couple of blind people. I met with a guy named Ethan who really helped me out. He was 19 when he went blind and he got dumped by his girlfriend, like my character, so he helped me  technically, when I was watching him, but also emotionally. He had a lot of rage but he was really funny, and I thought, Oh my god, this is perfect for the character. And so I made sure in the movie, I was like, I dont want Isaac to be the joke. I want him to be funny. Hes got an edge.

Theres a funny scene early on where Hazel and Augustus watch you fondling your girlfriends breast from across the car park. In the Q&A; at the screening I went to, you mentioned director Josh Boone yelling at you to honk the horn. What was it like being directed like that?Josh and I are such close friends now that we barely have to say anything to get the point across; we have a real shorthand. But he didnt have that with the girl [Emily Peachey, who plays Monica]. The girl was brand new; I had never met her. We were just supposed to make out. We [eventually] went on a fake date and we got matching necklaces and we tried to make it so there was some reality. But when Josh was screaming that out I was so embarrassed.

[BEGIN SPOILER] Tell me a little bit about shooting Guss eulogy scene. That must have been an intense experience.Yeah, it was. Especially because wed gotten to know each other so well  Ansel, Shai, and I. Every single time I talk about it I start to choke up, thinking about how somebody whos actually alive still is going to die ... I mean, especially someone I love, like Ansel. It was painful.

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There was a lot of audible sobbing during that part at my screening.Oh, man. My brother said he started crying at that part. And I started crying too. I didnt start crying during my part of it just because its too hard for me to watch myself, but during Shais part of it I started crying. And then the part where Laura [Dern] says to Shai, Ill always be your mother  I was just like, Fuuuck.

[END SPOILER] Theres a point where youre like, I just want it to stop; its so sad!Yeah, youre like, OK, OK!

Was it more fun shooting the scenes where you got to take out your rage by smashing trophies and throwing eggs?So fun. And I was really blind doing [the egg-throwing] scene. I put glass eye contacts in my eyes because I just didnt want to have to fake it. So I ended up actually being blind. I was like someone who just went blind because I didnt know what I was doing. For the scenes where I have one glass eye, I just had the one glass eye contact in, and it messed with my depth perception. So even though I could see, I was kind of, like, off. It made it so there was no acting.

You were also in Palo Alto with James Franco this year, and I hear that in that film you also get to smash a car into a wall. People seem to know that youre good at smashing stuff. Yeah, I end up playing people with a little bit of  I guess some rage. Palo Altos a whole different kind of character. Hes a much harder-to-like character, but I found a way to like him. Me, myself, Im much more like Isaac.

Are you something of a rebel in real life?I think, yeah ... Wait, ask me again.

Are you a rebel?I think if I say Im a rebel then Im probably not [laughs]. I always tend to gravitate toward the outsider. I just tend to do things in an odd way, and its something that, when I was younger, used to make me feel bad about myself. And as Ive gotten older, its been, I think, one of the reasons why Im a good actor  because Im weird.

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Youre also going play Q in the adaptation of John Greens next book, Paper Towns. Are you excited to get to play the lead this time?I am. I read the book on the set of Fault in Our Stars. That characters so soulful and great. I loved it. Hes this kid whos in love with this girl, and then they go on this really romantic night together and they go all over the city, and then in the morning she disappears and it goes into this awesome mystery  this hunt for her. Its kind of a mystery and a romance.

Fault translated really well to film. Do you think Paper Towns will adapt as easily to screen?I dont know. Its [by] Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter, who I think are the greatest screenwriters ever, who did 500 Days of Summer and Spectacular Now and Fault. Theyre doing it, so theyre going to make an amazing screenplay. I know that John thinks, and everybody kind of thinks, that its not as easily turned into a movie as Fault, because there are lots of different sections and its a little more poetic in the middle. So its not as plot-driven like Fault. But the way theyre talking about it, it just sounds like such a good movie.

One last thing: Theres a lot of talk in the film about how An Imperial Affliction ends in the middle of a sentence and you never find out what happens to the characters afterward. Do you ever envision where Isaac would end up beyond the movie?[SPOILER IN HIS RESPONSE] John Green told me that in apparently half the fan fiction, Isaac ends up hooking up with Hazel, which I think is kind of messed up. Maybe theyre grieving and they end up  no, I dont know. I think its one of those stories where Im really glad theres not a Fault in Our Stars 2.

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